A young woman in her early twenties is talking us through her outfit choice. She’s opted for baggy clothes, she says, because she’s off to a salon appointment, which also explains her tied-back hair and makeup-free skin. So far, it’s pretty standard social media stuff, a variation on every other “get ready with me” highlights reel. Until, that is, the woman sprays something called an “accelerator” up her nose, and films herself posing under the blue-tinged UV lights of a sunbed before closing the lid.
Welcome to tanning TikTok, where Gen Z are proudly documenting their sunbed habit. On this particular corner of the app, you’ll find countless videos following a very similar format, inviting the viewer to “come for a sunbed with me”; others promise tips and tricks for maximising your tan. These clips disconcertingly meld the influencer tropes – the front-facing camera, the peppy voiceover, the minutiae of a beauty routine – with a habit that could be doing them serious damage. A seriously dangerous practice is being placed under the nebulous umbrella of self-care.
Didn’t everyone stop using sunbeds years ago, you might ask? What about all the scary statistics, like the fact that just one sunbed session can increase the risk of developing squamous cell skin cancer by 67 per cent and basal cell skin cancer by 29 per cent? Despite all this, sunbeds are far from extinct. A recent report from The Times found that the UK’s biggest tanning chain, The Tanning Shop, has increased its number of premises by almost 40 per cent since 2018; in 2023, another popular chain, Indigo Sun, bounced back after the Covid lockdown to report record profits, and announced plans for “an ambitious period of expansion”.
For the younger generation, sunbeds have a particularly golden appeal. Last year, a survey by the charity Melanoma Focus found that 28 per cent of UK adults use sunbeds, rising to 43 per cent among 18- to 25-year-olds. In another study from Skin Health Alliance, 60 per cent of young people admitted to sunbed use, with 25 per cent using them frequently. Among them is 28-year-old Jessica*, who started indoor tanning about four years ago, after she moved to London and started working full-time.
“I’d always sat outside in the garden at my parents’ house while finishing uni deadlines, but once I was trapped in an office, it felt like there was no time to physically get my face in the sun,” she says. “I started becoming this grey version of myself I didn’t recognise, freckles long gone, and I hated it.” She makes do with fake tan in the winter, “but once it reaches the warmer months and it feels like I should be getting some natural UV on my skin anyway, I basically just save time by going to the tanning salon.”
So how does the process actually work? Tanning beds “contain lamps that generate UVA and UVB radiation”, similar to “levels produced in peak midday sun”, explains Dr Catherine Borysiewicz, consultant dermatologist at GetHarley. “The exposure of skin to these UV rays stimulates cells called melanocytes in the skin to release and produce melanin.” This pigment prompts the skin to tan as it tries “to protect itself from cellular injury from UV exposure”.
Any tan, then, is a form of skin damage. A glowing, golden complexion might be associated with health but, ironically, it’s actually a warning sign that your body is trying to protect itself from UV rays. “We also know that both [UVA and UVB rays] can damage the DNA of your skin cells, and that if enough damage occurs, it can lead to skin cancer,” Dr Borysiewicz adds, and “can also produce premature or accelerated aging in the skin”, leading to pigmentation, sunspots, wrinkling and loss of collagen.
The narrative and language used around sunbeds seem to have shifted significantly
Dr Mo Akhavani
Clinicians are already noticing the impact. Dr Dan Marsh and Dr Mo Akhavani, founders of the Plastic Surgery Group, say that they often see younger patients attending clinics out of season (ie during the colder months) with sun damage, suggesting that their tans are down to sunbeds.
There is startling research to suggest that starting the habit young can be particularly dangerous: using a sunbed before the age of 35 increases the risk of melanoma by 75 per cent. Dr Rakesh Anand, a consultant dermatologist and skin cancer expert, says that he is “increasingly seeing sun damage in young patients” in his clinic, “including early pigmentation issues associated with older individuals, as well as skin cancers in those who might not have been considered high risk”.
The dangers of sunbeds have been well-publicised since the late Noughties. In 2009, the World Health Organisation classified exposure to sunbeds and sun lamps as carcinogenic to humans; the same year, Brazil became the first country to completely ban the use of tanning beds for cosmetic purposes. And in 2011, a new law banned under-18s from using sunbeds across England and Wales (Scotland had introduced similar rules a few years before).
Throughout the 2010s, fake tanning products also became a lot more sophisticated (read: easier to apply without covering yourself in streaks, and less likely to make a personreek of gone-off digestive biscuits). Baking in the sun – or under a lamp – felt pointlessly risky when you could get a pretty decent glow from a bottle, and every other interview with a suspiciously line-free actor or model seemed to extol the virtues of wearing high-factor SPF every day. Sun exposure felt decidedly uncool, and sunbeds seemed especially retro; admitting to popping along to the tanning salon for a burst of UV would prompt raised eyebrows and concerned remarks.
How, then, has its reputation changed so dramatically in the space of a generation? Anyone can position themselves as an expert on social media, and doctors are troubled by the amount of misinformation spreading online: you might watch an influencer to copy their makeup routine, for example, but should you really be taking tanning advice from the same person? Dr Borysiewicz says she feels particularly concerned when she sees talk of “safe” tanning, “as this simply does not exist”, and she is also worried about the promotion of melanotan nasal sprays on social media. These illegal, unregulated products are often touted for tan-enhancing benefits, but, she says, “we have concerns it may cause melanoma”.
What’s striking, too, is how sunbed use has been rebranded as a wellness practice. Some devotees will wax lyrical about stress relief, or talk about how indoor tanning boosts vitamin D (this is a misconception, as most people make enough vitamin D through normal sunlight exposure, and can “boost” it more safely through dietary changes). “The narrative and language used around sunbeds seem to have shifted significantly and this is playing a huge part in their rise in popularity,” says Dr Akhavani. “Now we see them being referred to as promoting ‘relaxation’, or as ‘vitamin D therapy’ or as a ‘safer tan’. Younger generations reading this may not be aware of the dangers they pose.”
It cannot be emphasised enough that UV tanning is not wellness, it is skin damage
Dr Clare Kiely
Jessica says she hasn’t noticed any outright claims around wellness when she’s visited the tanning salon, but she does feel that “as stupid as it sounds, going to the tanning salon was good for my mental health”. She likens the sensation to “teleporting to an all-inclusive hotel in Ibiza for 12 minutes”, instantly providing “that summer warmth on your skin. And honestly, it’s usually the only time in the whole day I actually take a few moments to rest.”
However, she is currently trying to wean herself off the habit. “I have PCOS [polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal condition] and one of the symptoms I suffer with is hyperpigmentation on my face,” she explains. “One of the worst things I could do for that is sit on a sunbed, so I decided to give up because of that. For a while, I did still use them and just covered my face, but I knew it was bad for my health overall and decided to quit.”
Some salons have expanded into other beauty treatments such as red light therapy, which is generally considered to be safe for the skin, and it’s possible that this “may be causing confusion to some customers, who may make the mistake of thinking that [UV tanning] comes under the same wellness banner, not realising the real dangers sunbeds pose to the skin”, says Dr Akhavani. You can also find premises offering “collagen beds” or “collariums”, featuring traditional UV lights alongside infrared ones, which purportedly boost collagen production while tanning. But the addition of red lights won’t negate the impact of the UV.
Dr Clare Kiely, a consultant dermatologist and skin cancer specialist, is critical of such marketing tactics. “Let’s be clear, this is marketing spin, not science,” she says. “Although red light therapy, which can have therapeutic uses, is also part of the same electromagnetic spectrum as UV radiation, so are cancer radiotherapy treatments and microwaves. These all clearly exert very different effects on the skin and it cannot be emphasised enough that UV tanning is not wellness, it is skin damage.”
There’s another strange irony at play here, too. Gen Z are increasingly fixated on looking young for as long as possible; head over to social media and you can scroll through endless videos showing people in their early twenties detailing their complicated routines designed to stave off any signs of ageing. So why, then, indulge in a habit that can speed up those signs of ageing so significantly? Dr Anand says it’s “frustrating to see such dedication to youthful skin alongside one of the most ageing habits possible”, but suggests that there might be “an element of short-term gratification” at play here: “A tan provides instant results, whereas the benefits of anti-ageing skincare take years to materialise.”
But the impacts of sunbeds aren’t “just a ‘future you’ problem’”, as Dr Kiely puts it. Many of her young patients, in their twenties and early thirties, thought tanning “felt harmless. It looked good. It gave them a glow. And now, they’re having biopsies.” Even if you can’t see the impact right now, it will likely show up later, “in ways you can’t undo”, she says. “And if you’re unlucky, it won’t just be lines or spots. It could be surgery, scars and a cancer diagnosis.”
*Name has been changed
